60% of Ukrainians Expressed Distrust in NABU and SAP, - SOCIS Survey

The level of Ukrainians' disillusionment with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office has reached 60% and is approaching the level of public distrust in pro-Russian politicians. This is stated in a Socis poll.

Yes, according to the study results, the activities of the NABU and SAPO are considered ineffective by 59,4% of respondents, while only 5% of Ukrainians described their work as very effective. About 9% could not answer at all whether these anti-corruption bodies are effective.

Experts attributed the low level of trust in NABU and SAPO to ongoing corruption and other criminal scandals surrounding the leadership and even the ordinary staff of these bodies.

According to lawyer Oleh Shram, although NABU by law is supposed to tackle the most widespread segment of corruption, the Bureau's performance in the first half of the year 2026 is record-low. Thus, according to the lawyer, in criminal proceedings whose investigation was completed within six months, NABU recorded 720 million UAH of material losses — only 1% of 61 billion UAH, the amount established by all investigative bodies. The state reimbursement indicator in NABU's proceedings is utterly meager — 505 thousand UAH, i.e., only about 0,0008% of the total amount of damages established by all investigative bodies.

During the audit of NABU, the international audit revealed inflated staffing and failures in investigations in the defense sector within the Bureau.

In addition, NABU was accused of total ineffectiveness, enormous spending of budget funds, a leak of cases, and its employees were caught trading drugs. In particular, over 10 years of the Bureau's existence, the state spent over 10 billion UAH on it. Meanwhile, the total amount of recoveries by courts in cases pursued by NABU in 2015–2025 years amounts to only about 800 million UAH. That is, for every 1 hryvnia returned to the state budget, NABU spent 12.

The sociological survey was conducted using the method of face-to-face interviews.

By the Socis sociological service from 28 July to 2 August 2026 of the year. The survey was not conducted in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, in Luhansk region, in temporarily occupied territories, or in areas with active hostilities (a significant part of Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv regions); the sample is close to representative for the entire country in terms of age (older than 18 years), sex, settlement type (city/town) and regional division.

2000 respondents were surveyed. The statistical margin of error of the sample is +/- 2,6%.